TREASURY

Building Societies

Mark Hoban: The Government White Paper “Banking Reform: delivering stability and supporting a sustainable economy”, published on 14 June 2012, announced that the Government would shortly publish a discussion document on the building societies sector, setting out the full detail of their proposals for building societies, and their aspirations for the sector. We are today publishing this document.
	“The future of building societies” sets out the Government’s aim to maintain the distinctiveness of the sector while creating a level playing field and removing unnecessary barriers to growth. It will amend the Building Societies Act to widen the opportunities for building societies and to align them with the ring-fenced banks without compromising their mutuality and the pivotal role they play in supporting the aspirations of families. The loss-absorbency proposals will apply to building societies as they will for banks of a similar profile. More detail will be announced in due course.
	Furthermore, the Government are open to reviewing those parts of the Building Societies Act that the sector believes restrict them, where this is in accordance with maintaining their distinctiveness as part of their drive to foster diversity in the financial sector.
	The discussion document is available on HM Treasury’s website, and copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Draft Local Audit Bill

Grant Shapps: Today I am publishing the draft Local Audit Bill for consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny. A copy has been laid before the House. The draft Bill sets out a new, decentralised and more efficient audit framework, that gives local bodies greater responsibility.
	The publication of the draft Local Audit Bill is another key step towards a more transparent and localist audit system, and builds on what has already been achieved since my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State announced our plans to abolish the Audit Commission. In 2010, the Government brought an end to the top-down regime of routine assessment and inspection of local authorities, reducing the burden on local bodies so they can concentrate on meeting the needs of local people. In preparation for closure the Government asked the Audit Commission to outsource
	the work of its in-house practice to the private sector. This year and for the next four years local bodies will benefit from a 40% reduction in their audit fees.
	The package of reforms, including the proposals set out in the draft Bill we are publishing today, will bring total expected savings to the public purse of £650 million over the next five years. This figure, which is net of transitional costs, includes savings from the ending of assessment and inspection, a reduction in the cost of audit, and the slimming down and closure of the Audit Commission. Full details of the savings are set out in the consultation-stage impact assessment published alongside the draft Bill.
	The new local audit framework set out in the draft Bill represents better value for money for taxpayers while protecting the integrity of the local audit system. There will be a more streamlined regulatory system that will continue to provide robust assurance over public funds. These reforms will also bring wider benefits: the new regime will be more localist, allowing local bodies to appoint their own auditors, with appropriate safeguards to protect auditor independence. The reforms will complement our existing initiatives to increase transparency and empower local scrutiny of public bodies.
	In the proposed new audit framework, local bodies will be able to appoint their own auditors from an open and competitive market, on the advice of an independent auditor panel. The draft Bill provides the mechanism to delegate new responsibilities to the Financial Reporting Council, which will act as the overall regulator for auditors, and the professional audit bodies. It also sets out a new role for the National Audit Office, which will set the code of audit practice, and will be able to undertake a small number of thematic value-for-money studies relating to local government. The draft Bill makes provision for the repeal of the Audit Commission Act 1998, and for the transfer of assets, liabilities and continuing functions to other bodies once the Audit Commission closes.
	Although there are no draft clauses included in the Bill at present, the accompanying consultation document makes it clear that the intention is to include provisions relating to the audit of health bodies in the final version of the Bill when it is introduced to Parliament.
	I am also publishing alongside the draft Bill detailed proposals for the audit of smaller local public bodies (those with an annual turnover below £6.5 million). These bodies will be subject to a proportionate audit regime, including an option for smaller bodies to have their auditor procured and appointed by a sector-led body. This follows a proposal from the National Association of Local Councils and the Society of Local Council Clerks to establish a body for such a purpose. Additionally, bodies with a turnover below £25,000 will no longer be automatically subject to external audit. Instead, I am proposing new transparency requirements for all smaller bodies with a turnover below £200,000, and local people will still be able to raise objections and have complaints investigated by an auditor if deemed appropriate.
	I welcome scrutiny of the draft Local Audit Bill by the House. We will seek to shorten and simplify the provisions, if at all possible, before it becomes a final Bill. It remains the Government’s intention to introduce a final Bill as soon as parliamentary time allows.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005

Caroline Spelman: I am today laying before Parliament “Post-Legislative Assessment of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005”, Cm 8394, the Government’s memorandum to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, which provides a preliminary assessment of the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005.
	The main purpose of the Act is to provide a legislative framework for providing and maintaining a clean and safe local environment and provides powers to local authorities to tackle problems associated with antisocial behaviour.
	Copies of the memorandum are available in the Vote Office.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Scrutiny Committee on Cypriot Presidency Priorities

David Lidington: I am keen to keep Members fully informed on developments in the European Union and their implications for the United Kingdom and our priorities. I would, therefore, like to draw Members’ attention to a paper on the priorities of the Cypriot presidency of the Council of the European Union, which has been placed in the Library of the House.
	I have also deposited a copy of the Cypriot’s own presidency priorities paper, the official calendar of events and a list of key Cypriot personnel for the presidency.

Export of Tasers

Alistair Burt: Torture is an affront to human rights and the UK will not waver from our determination to combat it wherever and whenever it occurs.
	Since 1997 it has been UK Government policy to prevent persons and companies operating in the UK from manufacturing, selling or procuring equipment designed primarily for torture, and they have taken necessary measures to prevent the export from, or transhipment through, the UK of portable devices designed or modified for riot control purposes or self-protection that administer an electric shock. This included electric discharge shock guns, of which Taser is a brand.
	In my written ministerial statement of 9 February 2012, Official Report, column 46-47WS, I reconfirmed the Government’s commitment to this long-standing policy. We are determined to prevent companies or persons operating from the UK or UK persons wherever they are in the world from manufacturing, selling, or procuring equipment designed primarily for torture
	and we will continue to press for a global ban on such equipment. We will maintain this prohibition on the export, transhipment, and trade in such equipment to all destinations, except in the very limited and specific circumstances set out in the statement regarding to Tasers in specific cases relating to approved use by UK police, or by the police of the Crown dependencies or overseas territories.
	The ban on British involvement in these activities has always been intended to apply, and will continue to be applicable to trade activities as well as to export and transhipment. This is necessary to ensure that the policy ban on selling, manufacturing and procuring of this equipment has maximum effect. Trade activities include the trafficking and brokering of controlled goods from one third country to another third country by UK persons wherever they are, or by any persons carrying out such activities in the United Kingdom. Trade activities were not included in the July 1997 statement because at the time such activities were not controlled in the United Kingdom.
	Thus the Government will not issue licences for trade (including trafficking and brokering) in equipment designed primarily for torture to any person in the United Kingdom or to United Kingdom persons as defined in section 11 of the Export Control Act 2002 (which includes British citizens and UK registered companies), wherever they are in the world, other than in the limited and specific circumstances set out in my statement of 9 February 2012.

JUSTICE

Justice Committee on Presumption of Death (Government Response)

Jonathan Djanogly: I have today laid before Parliament a Command Paper setting out the response of the Ministry of Justice to the report of the Justice Committee on Presumption of Death (HC 1663) (Cm 8377).
	In its report the Committee criticised the present law in England and Wales. The Committee recommended that better guidance should be made available to those left behind. The Committee also recommended that legislation should be introduced to create both a single statutory process to obtain a certificate of presumed death broadly equivalent to a death certificate and a new status of guardian of the affairs of a missing person.
	The Ministry of Justice acknowledges the difficulties faced by those left behind when a person disappears; accepts the Committee’s recommendation that better guidance should be issued, and is working with others to prepare this. The Department also accepts the Committee’s proposal that a certificate of presumption of death should be created. The Government will introduce legislation to achieve this when parliamentary time permits. In relation to the Committee’s recommendation on guardianship, the Department considers that this area is complex and that further examination of the issues is required before any decision to legislate can properly be taken. The Department intends to ask the Law Commission to conduct a detailed project considering how best to effect this reform and is in discussions with them.